March 6, 2005

Final Stats

LEWISBURG, Pa. - Senior Matej Cresnik (Velenje, Slovenia/Univerza V Ljubljani) led American University with 12 points but it was not enough as the Bison of Bucknell knocked the Eagles out of the semifinals of the Patriot League Tournament by 18 points, 53-35.

"Obviously it was a tough day for us," said American University Head Coach Jeff Jones. "Bucknell is an outstanding team and they just wore us down."

The Bison led by seven, 36-29, with 7:22 left in the game when they turned up the defensive pressure on the Eagles. They closed out the game with a 19-6 run with nine of the points coming from the charity stripe.

Earlier in the second half Chris McNaughton gave Bucknell a three-point lead (24-21) with 16:37 to play. The Eagles would not get closer the rest of the way and a minute later Chris Niesz converted a three-point play after Patrick Okpwae (Yaounde, Cameroon/Berkshire School) picked up the foul. After a Cresnik free throw gave AU 22 points Donald Brown put back an offensive rebound and Niesz followed with a pair of free throws to put the Bison up nine points, 31-22. Okpwae broke a four minute American scoring drought with a jumper from the left side to cut the deficit to seven (31-24) but Bucknell's John Griffin knocked down a three to give Bucknell its first double-digit lead of the game at 34-24. Frank Mastropaolo made the lead a dozen points (36-24) with 11:56 to play on a layup.

Andre Ingram (Richmond, Va. /Highland Springs) did not hit his first bucket of the game until the 11:39 mark in the second, bringing the Eagles back to within 10 (36-26). Ingram then cut it to seven when he hit a long three at 7:26 (36-29). However, the Bison then went on a 5-0 run. Cresnik broke up the run with a two-pointer but McNaughton responded with a short jumper to push the lead back to 12 (43-31) with 5:12 to play. Bucknell pushed its lead to 14 points but Cresnik hit a three to cut the deficit to 11 points (45-34) with 3:23 remaining. However, that was as close as the Eagles would get as they managed just one free throw the rest of the way.

The Eagles started the game with a quick 4-0 lead as Linas Lekavicius (Silale, Lithuania/The Miller School) hit a short jumper in the paint and Cresnik followed with a baseline jumper. McNaughton finally got Bucknell on the board at 18:02 but then both teams went cold as Petrauskas' free throw was the only score until Charles Lee (14:52) buried a long three to put the Bison up 7-5. Brayden Billbe (Mercer Island, Wash./Mercer Island) responded with a layup to tie things at 7-7 and then Okpwae put the Eagles up 9-7 with a bucket. The teams remained tied at 9-9 until Lee hit a pair of free throws. Okpwae gave American its last lead of the half at 16-15 with 4:47 to play. Bucknell scored the last three points of the half to go into the locker-room up two points, 18-16.

McNaughton and Niesz each scored 11 points to lead the Bison while Lee was one rebound short of a double-double as he finished with nine rebounds and 10 points. The Bison are now 21-9 and will play at Holy Cross in the Patriot League Championship game.

Cresnik was the lone scorer in double figures for American with 12 points. Ingram and Okpwae each finished with five points. The Eagles finish the year 16-12, which is the fourth straight winning season for AU. The seniors who are graduating are the first group to have four straight winning seasons since the 1974-75 squad capped off a run of five straight winning seasons.